In the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, drones are well known for their military uses, whether for surveillance or air strikes. They have even won literary acclaim, with the recent publication of a thriller by an author writing under the pseudonym Doa, whose title, “Pukhtu primo” is a clear allusion to this part of the world.

The privilege of issuing a stamp or stopping the calendar: two ways of expressing sovereignty, which is the only power that can stamp its mark in this way and give time meaning; two universal aspects of nationhood, which arose with nations themselves and are inseparable from them. North Korea, which constantly asserts its uniqueness, does not neglect either of them.

When I started at Sotheby’s in 2010 in the Russian Art Department, I discovered a world where passion for art and record prices for the works of most sought-after artists were combined through the magic of the auction.